It’s not often game nine of the regular season schedule is accompanied by the words “must win” or “do or die” – but in the case of the Prince George Cougars, some long-standing demons needed to be exercised.
Unfortunately, the ghost of the Portland Winterhawks once again came back to haunt them.
The Winterhawks erased a four-goal, third-period deficit in the span of ten minutes en route to a shocking 5-4 shootout victory in front of 2,952 fans at CN Centre.
Buttazzoni says 🚨 Štěbeták says ❌
The Portland Winterhawks rally back from 4-0 down and win in the shootout@pdxwinterhawks | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/y6ECRDExgp
— The WHL (@TheWHL) October 10, 2024
Portland’s surge started with a 5-on-3 power-play following infractions to Viliam Kmec and Carson Carels. Diego Buttazzoni shot a one-timer, which slipped through the legs of Cougars goaltender Josh Ravensbergen to trim the deficit to 4-1.
Six minutes later, Hudson Darby re-directed a Tyson Jugnauth point shot past Ravensbergen. Portland capped off the comeback with goals from Jugnauth and Kyle Chyzowski 23 seconds apart, stunning the Cougars and their fans.
Make that 3⃣ points for Jugs tonight 👊 pic.twitter.com/Z9EKjshIbl
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) October 10, 2024
Neither team scored on the power-play in overtime.
PG kicked off the offensive fireworks after a listless first ten minutes of the first period.
The Cougars quick-strike offense found its mojo lighting the lamp twice in a nine-second span.
A 2-on-1 rush led by rookie Kayden Lemire found Evan Groening who made no mistake beating Winterhawks goalie Luke Brunen.
Right off the face-off, Los Angeles Kings signed prospect Koehn Ziemmer continued his hot play by bull-rushing the Portland zone and lifting a soft puck past the inside post of Brunen to double the edge to 2-0.
This marked the end of Brunen’s evening who was replaced by Ondrej Stebetak.
To add insult to injury, Terik Parascak slithered his way to the top of the Portland crease and re-directed a saucer pass from Riley Heidt, unceremoniously welcoming Stebetak to the game.
The Heidt and Parascak connection is FAST fast.@mnwild | @Capitals | @CarlsJrCA pic.twitter.com/jwGWQJtOjw
— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 10, 2024
In the second, the Cougars added to its via Parascak who made it 4-0 courtesy of a Borya Valis wrap-around feed.
s̶u̶p̶e̶r̶ r̶o̶o̶k̶i̶e̶
super sophomore@Capitals | @CarlsJrCA pic.twitter.com/PCUNDYVbZ8— Prince George Cougars (@PGCougars) October 10, 2024
Ravensbergen made 24 saves in defeat.
Rookie Russian blueliner Artemi Anisimov took the warmup for PG but was a healthy scratch, he is expected to make his WHL debut on Saturday.
The Cougars outshot Portland (6-1-0-0) 31-28 overall and went 0-for-3 on the power-play.
The Winterhawks went 1-for-5.
Portland has already clinched the season series against PG with its trio of victories in a span of five days (4-3 overtime win on Tuesday and a 3-2 win in Portland on Saturday).
Dating back to the Western Conference Final, the Cougars have dropped seven of their last nine games against the Winterhawks. The last regular season meeting between the two teams is set for December 13th in Portland.
PG drops to 4-2-2-1 on the campaign and will wrap up its three-game homestand on Saturday against the Prince Albert Raiders at 6pm before embarking on an Alberta road trip which begins Monday and Wednesday with stops in Calgary and Medicine Hat.
COMEBACK KIDS 🤯‼️ pic.twitter.com/l9O5FzTNRO
— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) October 10, 2024
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